LSAT 134 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: There are 70 to 100 Florida panthers alive today…

QUESTION TYPE: Must Be True

FACTS: Florida panthers need a larger habitat for their population to grow. And their population is too small to sustain itself right now.

ANALYSIS: We need more panthers, or else the panther population can’t sustain itself. But their habitat won’t support any more panthers.

So the panthers need a larger habitat to have a chance of being self-sustaining. You could draw this as:

S ➞ 250 ➞ LH (sustaining ➞ 250 ➞ larger habitat)
LH ➞ 250 ➞ S (contrapositive form)

___________

1. This is never mentioned. Maybe the panthers’ entire habitat is high quality, but they need more habitat.
2. False reversal. I need food to live, but I won’t live simply because I have food. Likewise, the panthers might need something else to be self-sustaining, apart from higher numbers.
3. CORRECT. Without more habitat, the panthers’ population will stay stuck at 70-100. That’s not enough to sustain them.
4. The panthers might get a larger habitat somehow. Their forest might grow back, for example.
5. We know there are more panthers than in the 1970’s. But their habitat might be the same size. Their population could have grown to the limits of their existing habitat.